Improving Indian Agriculture Focus of New UADA Partnership
Arkansas Clean Plant Center to train Indian scientists on pathogen elimination
By John Lovett – Nov. 24, 2025
COOPERATION — Priya Ranjan, left, joint secretary of the Indian Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Jean-François Meullenet, senior associate vice president for agriculture-research and director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, shake hands after signing an agreement to collaborate through the Arkansas Clean Plant Center, which aims to help implement a clean plant program in India. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture recently entered a five-year agreement with the Indian National Horticulture Board and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to help farmers in India improve agricultural production by limiting spread of pathogens.
India is one of the world’s largest producers of fruits and vegetables, but a lack of disease-free propagation material has limited the yield potential of the nation’s mostly small-scale farmers.
Ioannis Tzanetakis, director of the Arkansas Clean Plant Center and professor of plant virology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, has been working on the Indian Clean Plant Program for almost three years. The project’s goal is to establish nine clean plant centers in India.
The Arkansas Clean Plant Center is a part of the experiment station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture. As part of the memorandum of cooperation signed on Nov. 18 between the Indian government agencies and the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on behalf of the Division of Agriculture, the Arkansas Clean Plant Center in Fayetteville will host scientists from India for the training needed to develop the Indian Clean Plant Program.
The partnership is focused on training advanced diagnostic methods, virus elimination and implementation of science-based certification systems, Tzanetakis noted. Indian scientists will work with the Arkansas Clean Plant Center’s team to gain practical experience in clean plant operations, from testing to greenhouse management and disease elimination protocols.
“I’m proud of this collaboration with India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, which represents a major step forward in our shared commitment to plant health and sustainable agriculture,” Tzanetakis said. “These exchanges will not only strengthen our respective programs but also build lasting partnerships that enhance global agricultural biosecurity, something that I have worked on in the better part of my career.”
Jean-François Meullenet, senior associate vice president for agriculture-research and director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, said the partnership fits into the university system’s land-grant mission of performing public service by enhancing global agricultural biosecurity for one of the United States’s largest trading partners. The project will help decrease pesticide use and improve both environmental and economic sustainability for India’s mostly small-scale farmers.
Expanding international relationships is also a key part of the Division of Agriculture’s strategic plan.
“This partnership strengthens a long-lasting relationship with India and the United States,” Meullenet said. “We look forward to the many positive benefits that will come from the Indian Clean Plant Program.”
Global collaboration for virus elimination
Priya Ranjan, joint secretary for the Indian government’s Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, said Tzanetakis offers a deep understanding of the U.S. National Clean Plant Network since he has been part of it since it was established in 2008.
“He knows where things can go wrong,” Ranjan said of Tzanetakis. “With his experience, his insights, and his learnings, we intend not to replicate them. It is going to be an ongoing collaboration wherein we’ll be getting all the kind of support from Ioannis and other partners across the world to build a very robust program.”
Ranjan said most of the farms in India are about 2 acres, and the nation’s horticultural output is around 365 million metric tons per year.
“But we have our challenges, and I think one of the main challenges will be addressed through the Clean Plant Program when we clean the majority of the economically important horticulture commodities that we have in India,” said Ranjan, who is also the managing director of the National Horticulture Board, the commercial arm for promotion of horticulture in India.
V.B. Patel, assistant director general of the Horticultural Science Division for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said the first crop they will focus on eliminating pathogens from is grapes.
If they are successful with eliminating pathogens in grapes, Patel said crops that the Indian Clean Plant Program will further focus on include pomegranates, apples, pears and walnuts, as well as tropical fruits like mangos, avocados and bananas.
In their cost-benefit analysis, Ranjan said they found that across the world there are many examples where yield depressions have happened because of viral infestations, including citrus in the United States.
“If we are able to eliminate these pathogens to a substantial level, so that they are not economically going to hamper the productivity and the incomes of the farmers, I think we’ll be doing a great service,” Ranjan said.
In addition to training, the agreement establishes opportunities for developing collaborative programs such as exchange programs for information, students, faculty, researchers and administrators.
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on 𝕏 at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on 𝕏 at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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